Las Vegas April 2012- MOMS Club luncheon/weekend

I've been involved with our local MOMS Club chapter for nearly 5 years. It is a wonderful way for stay at home moms to meet other stay at home moms (and the kids to meet/play w/ other kids) and support each other in this not so easy job of raising kids full time. :) Our chapter is small but we all know each other really well and see each other often. I've been the president for the past 3 years (totally not done on purpose) and it has been a good experience. Every year, there is an annual luncheon held to motivate, train, inspire, etc moms club members around the region. This year they decided to have it in Las Vegas. I have never been before but this year, one of our newest members was totally pumped about going and after talking to Mike about it, I told her I would go with her if she decided to go. (I do have to say I was hesitant to commit to going because I would have to fly out to Vegas just one day after returning from Costa Rica. But Mike said it wasn't a big deal to him that I go right after we got back and I didn't need too much more to motivate me after that!). I had been to Vegas once before... back in maybe 2002 Mike took me for a few days. There is so much to see in Vegas, I was excited to go back to check it out again.

So we returned from Costa Rica on a Thursday. I spent Friday during the day unpacking & doing some of the more necessary laundry. Then I packed for Vegas and Rebecca and I were off that evening at 7pm on a flight to Vegas.

Once in Vegas we checked into our hotel (Circus Circus... going for economy this trip! :) and then set off to check out the sites. We went up to see the circus area in our hotel with the rides and such and then we walked down the strip looking at the hotels all the way down to The Bellagio. It was quite late Oklahoma time by the time we reached that point so we headed back down to our hotel.

Here I am outside of the Bellagio but you see the Paris hotel in the background.

And here is the Bellagio in the background with their fountain show (which is pretty cool to watch). 

And the video...

They do play all sorts of songs, not just Elvis. ;o) The one before this was a classical piece. I think it is every 15 minutes for the water show during the operating hours. 

When you are walking the strip in Vegas you get to see all sorts of things. Pretty much anything goes. I didn't take any pictures of the crazier things... and I would probably spare you even if I had. But there are lots of people who come out, dressed in costume, and make money by people paying them to take pictures with them. There were a few that caught my eye- a couple of them I had to take the picture for Jackson... but one in particular really caught my eye. :)

The hotels are all very unique and many are fun to explore inside and out. Here are some of the highlights... I think Paris, the Venetian, Bellagio, and Circus Circus are in this picture below.

One of my favorite things to see inside the hotels on this trip was inside the Bellagio in their garden/conservatory. I don't remember if I'd seen this area on my last trip but apparently they change it out every so often. This time is was made to look like bits and pieces of Holland... from all the flowers (gorgeous lovely smelling flowers including beautiful tulips!), the wooden shoes, the umbrellas, the bicycle, windmill, etc. I was completely blown away to see this portrait that was made completely with real flowers!! Amazing. I think it would almost be worth it to go to Vegas every time this garden is redone... if money was no object. ;o)

Another thing that I hadn't seen before was the chocolate fountain inside the Bellagio. It runs through a sweet shop just behind the gardens and you can buy lots of yummy treats inside. There is white and regular chocolate running through the fountain and it is all enclosed in glass. We also saw this mannequin dressed in chocolate and this amazing dragon made from chocolate. Such talent!

Saturday morning we had to wake up with our alarms (and I really didn't want to get out of the bed!) and get ready for the luncheon. We got breakfast and coffee to go in the hotel and walked down the strip just a short way to the hotel where the luncheon was being held. We had a really great time with the other Moms from our region... and there were quite a few. We got to chat about club things, listen to inspirational stories, and we also ate lunch. :) Rebecca and I got some really great ideas to bring back to our group as well. 

Saturday night we ate dinner at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant at the MGM hotel (the fish I had was delicious) and then afterward we went and saw Cirque Du Soleil's Ka. (There is a little preview on their site.) It was pretty neat and the acrobatics were amazing. The set was very unique and the special effects were extraordinary. 

It was on Saturday, maybe when we were heading back to the hotel to change for dinner, that we decided to go ahead and get a bus pass. The walking was getting old (especially that we were just walking up the same areas repeatedly only to get as far as we'd gotten the last time!) as well as the heat and I remembered when my feet were killing me on the last Vegas trip that we hopped on the bus very inexpensively. We were so thankful to sit in those bus seats. ;o) We should have done it sooner. So from then on, when we weren't walking in front of the hotels that we wanted to see, we were going to them on the bus. 

Sunday we decided to try out the buffet scene and after reading a good review of the Aria brunch buffet, we headed that way. I am not normally fond of buffets but this was really nice... lots of international dishes (including sushi!), tons of vegetarian options, and crab legs! I wish my stomach could have held more. ;o) I also got the unlimited bloody mary... only to drink maybe 1.5. Ah well... we had places to go! 

Namely.... 

My all time favorite place to shop for inexpensive, cute clothes. :) When I was looking up the Vegas locations (I had spied an H&M bag on the strip so I knew they were out there!) I read an article that said this store was the largest in the world. In the WORLD?!?! It was pretty huge. 

After some other last minute shopping and then a scramble to get our bags at the hotel and get to the airport in time, our trip had come to an end. :( It was a super fast trip but very full and definitely fun! There is still so much that we didn't do so I guess that means I might have to go back one day... but other travels will come first. :) 

Last day in Manuel Antonio & departing Costa Rica

On the last day in the Manuel Antonio area (and essentially the last day of our vacation since we would be flying out the very next day), Mike and Isabella went on their canopy tour and Jackson & I hung out around the hotel.

Here are some pictures of Jackson and my day.

 At breakfast with Jackson.

The view from our breakfast table. 

Our first lizard spotting for the day.

After a pretty long walk Jackson was getting fussy and wanting me to carry him. Thankfully we happened upon this super docile lizard and he provided a good little break from our hot walk. Jackson was actually able to touch this lizard where all the other ones dart as soon as anyone gets near. 

I think this is Jackson trying to give it a leaf. I was telling Jackson he wouldn't bite only later to hear from Mike that they can. Who knew??

            

This is a plane that is actually converted into a hotel room at the same hotel we stayed at.

After getting hot on our walk we took one last swim in the pool. We then gathered up our stuff, checked out of the hotel, and then waited for Mike & Bella to return from their trip. 

 

Isabella and Mike's Canopy Tour (this section is narrated by Mike):

We had been talking about a canopy tour for literally weeks, if not months, before we went down to Costa Rica.  Isabella was super excited about it, and I was super excited to get to share it with her, because I hoped it would be a great experience for her.  We nearly booked one at our second hotel, but I decided to hold off and find one that was independent of a hotel.  So at our last stop I had seen a number of signs around town and some material in the room about canopy tours. I talked with the desk staff at the hotel about what was available, they were encouraging and recommended one tour above all of the others for which they had literature.  I wanted to make sure that I could stay really close to my girl on the tour, and I was assured that we would be close together.  I actually thought he said that Isabella would be going with a guide tethered to her, but I must have misunderstood that...

Anyway, for those of you who are thoroughly acquainted with Isabella, you know that she is a pretty "girly" girl. She also inherited much of her father's lack of grace.  So going into the day, I sort of expected it to be a little rough.  She had been running an average of 1.7329 skinned knees per day on the trip and a crying fit about every 1.326 hours.  There are a lot of ways to get injured and skinned up in Costa Rica, especially if your parents like to see animals and waterfalls and stuff like that.

Come the morning of our canopy tour i got up at six-fifteen, jumped in the shower, dressed, and then woke Isabella at twenty until seven.  She awakened with a smile on her face and was raring to go.  She got dressed semi-quietly and we slipped out of the room so that Mommy and Jackson could continue sleeping, which I'm sure they did.  Mommy loves her sleep, and she will, as a rule, sleep as long as she is allowed to or until at least 10 :) Isabella and I were down at the front desk of the hotel at ten until seven waiting for the van to pick us up for our adventure.  The van arrived just a few minutes late, but we hopped on board and off we went...down to the area near Manuel Antonio park to see if there were any last minute stand around participants, which there were not.  Then off to the canopy tour office to sign a release and meet up with a few other folks from other hotels.  I was reassured to see several ACCT signs posted around the office.  Oddly enough, I had not even considered course certification up until the time I saw those signs.  I guess I was very much in tourist mode.  We visited for a few minutes with the other guests (all of them were from the U.S. if I remember correctly) then loaded on to a big van for the drive up into the jungle.  The lead guide, Jorge, kept everyone interested and sometimes entertained with tidbits about the area's history, flora and fauna, and funny stories.  He told us that driving over the very rough roads in the country is called a "Costa Rican massage" and showed us the best plant to use for jungle toilet paper, which information thankfully we did not need. We finally arrived at our destination (nearly an hour drive up into the jungle) and unloaded.  We sat down to eat breakfast.  Eggs, gallo pinto (no avoiding that at breakfast), fruit, bread, and juice. Then we geared up.

Up until now Isabella had maintained her remarkably cheerful demeanor.  She seemed really excited and a little impatient with any delay, like the drive and the breakfast.  Once she got a seat harness and helmet on, she was really raring to go.  We immediately made our first zip line traverse, which was a really short one just across a small creek to get us to the trailhead, then we had a pretty long uphill hike to get to the rest of the canopy tour.  I'm talking close to half a mile, all uphill, in very warm and humid jungle.  You can see by the photos that my girl was cheerful the entire time.  Not one complaint, no whining or fussing, and most amazingly, no injuries.  She was as sure footed as a little mule, even though she was wearing the same shoes that she had complained about the day before.  I think it helped that she had socks on for this...

We finally got to the top of the trail and made ready for a series of zips, rappels, and one Tarzan swing. It turned out that Isabella did not go tethered to a guide, but rather just was clipped in like all the other participants.  She was right ahead of me and we stayed very close together the entire tour, always within arms reach when on a platform. Isabella took to it like she was born to it (which I suppose she may have been:)).  She never showed the tiniest hint of being nervous or afraid - even when bigger kids (or sometimes full grown adults) were crying, literally. So...I guess I'll let the photos speak for themselves.  I guess the only other thing I want to say is that I was (am) very proud of my BIG, BIG girl.

Leslie's part:  After they returned from their trip we headed off to eat lunch at El Wagon which was also owned by our hotel but up the road a short bit. It had some sort of converted train car that you could dine in or the outside patio with a lovely mosaic tile floor. We ate outside (of course) & had a really nice meal. I had a fish wrap which was probably my 2nd favorite meal in Costa Rica. It was delish. While there, our waiter told us that we could look over the patio railing & see an agouti which is basically a large tropical rodent. :) There were several of them & I thought they were pretty cute. You don't really get the size in this picture but I'd say they are maybe twice as big as a squirrel?? 

After lunch we made the drive back to the capital and to our hotel where we would be staying our final night in Costa Rica. :(  We got in after dark and only had time to eat and then get the kids to bed. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that this hotel had a rental car agency in it and actually the same one that we rented from so we were able to return our car that night at the hotel rather than waking up even earlier in the morning to try & find the other rental agency to go through the whole return deal there. So this was a major time saver for us and allowed us some extra sleep and peace of mind.

This is a picture coming into San Jose. We were very surprised to see a different side of San Jose than what we saw when we came in. The area we drove through after getting our rental car was a poor section with lots of small shops and cramped driving conditions. Coming into San Jose from Manuel Antonio we saw a more metropolitan side with lots of tall buildings and a large highway. 

And here are the kiddos on the return flight. Doing pretty well for having to get up around 5am in the morning to get on our 8:35am flight. This was an easier travel day as it was a straight flight from San Jose to Dallas. 

 



After arriving in Dallas we took a shuttle to our hotel (the one we stayed at before leaving on our trip) & picked up our car. Then after a quick lunch we headed back to OKC. We were sad to be done with our vacation but so happy about the fun times we had! We can't wait to go on another trip. :)

Fourth Stop: Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

We said goodbye to the beach at Nicoya Peninsula (much to the kid's dismay... they wanted more pool time and more beach time) and headed out to what we hoped would be a shorter trip to our next destination. We opted to take the ferry over to shorten our drive time. Well, we did end up driving for a shorter period of time and on better roads. We drove about an hour from our hotel to the ferry. Then after getting off the ferry we drove for about 1.5 - 2 hrs. Sounds good compared to 5-5.5 hrs driving, right? Well it didn't shorten our overall trip by much, unfortunately. We arrived to the ferry about an hour in advance (maybe a little more, I can't remember) to make sure we would get on (as recommended). Then we wait and wait on a ferry in the heat. At times it wasn't that bad, if the wind was blowing just right... but other times it was pretty miserable for everyone. Then we finally get going and we have an hour long trip ahead of us. And it was still pretty warm. They have air conditioned areas inside the ferry but I think it might have been a couple degrees cooler than outside and without the benefit of the wind. So if you add the 2 hours on the ferry to the 3 hours we spent driving, it all about equaled out. Except being in the car is more comfortable and you don't have to watch out for shady people on the ferry... nor do you have to figure out when you're suppose to go down to get into your car to get it off the ferry (we didn't hear the announcement and Mike had to rush down at the last minute after cars were already getting off the ferry!). So it was definitely an experience and there were some nice views but I don't know that we would recommend doing it to get out of the drive.

We ate another lunch in the car after a quick run into a grocery store.

So here are some pictures of our ferry trip.

We arrived at our hotel, Hotel Costa Verde, after dark. Of course. We are shown to our room by the hotel staff member who was on a motorcycle (he drove and we followed).  We couldn't see much of the property but our room was spacious and even came with a small kitchen (too bad we hadn't stocked up on food to cook at our last grocery store trip!). We quickly unloaded our things and headed out to eat at one of the hotel's restaurants. We opted for the one across the street, La Cantina. Mike was grumpy ... long travel day and he was not enjoying the heat (we were eating outside as that is the only option we've ever seen in Costa Rica and the temps were probably in the upper 70s to lower 80s, after dark) but I was still happy to be on vacation. :) The kids were a bit tired but that wasn't out of the ordinary. We ate and it was okay food. Nothing memorable but nothing horrible.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel to change into our swim suits for a quick swim that was just down the path from our hotel. We couldn't see much but the hotel had nice signs that helped us figure out which way to go. The hotels are kind of stuck in the middle of lots of trees with paths to connect them but it is done in a way that you really feel like there isn't many people staying at the hotel. We felt quite secluded where we were at.

We swam for a short bit before I noticed something in the tree nearby. It was tough to see, but after staring at it for awhile I determined that it was a sloth hanging from the tree. Mike looked for a bit and agreed. Too bad we didn't have our camera... not that a picture would come out in the dark. :( Pretty amazing though - to see a sloth while you're swimming in the pool. And of course it was there the whole time... they don't move very much or very fast!

The next morning we ate breakfast at different restaurant on the property, Anaconda. I had the traditional breakfast w/ the pinto gallo, egg, fruit, and bread. I think the kids had pancakes. Not sure what Mike had. He was still grumpy... this morning he was grumpy about missing out on the hanging bridges in La Fortuna (which was back where the volcano was) because we didn't realize that the hanging bridges were there. Ah well. He eventually got over it. After a bit. That seemed like forever. ;o)

Anyway. After breakfast we went to check out the town, Quepos, and also scope out the Manuel Antonio National Park. It ended up raining which sent us back to our hotel to wait it out.

Here is our hotel balcony and our room.

And here is the amazing view we had from our balcony. A bit hazy because of the rain, but still pretty!

After the rain stopped, we headed back out to the park. We had a guide that approached us up once we were heading to the park (in the wrong direction, but he did help us to find the entrance) but we ditched him when his story ended up changing about who was going to be our guide, when we'd pay, etc. Ah well, we saved some money there. 

We didn't walk very far into the park before Isabella started whining about rocks and dirt getting into her shoes. So I knew right then the visit to the park wouldn't be very long. We ended up spotting a sloth that a guide was showing some other tourists. It was quite a ways up in the trees so it was hard to see & I don't think the kids ever did figure out where it was. I got a few pictures, but even in the pictures it is hard to make out. Here is one picture cropped with the sloth directly in the middle. You can see his long arm reaching up to the tree limb & his head is hanging upside down below that arm. The tour guide said she had a baby hanging on to her. We couldn't really see that.

We walked for a bit more with more whining and came upon this beach. We were hesitant to go down to it because Mike didn't want to swim but we knew the kids would. So we quickly changed in the bathroom area and headed down. This water was slightly calmer than the water at Nicoya Peninsula, but still rough enough that I had to keep the kids very close. I ended up taking them out one by one, holding them in a deeper part of the water so that they could get in deeper. A couple of times the undertow scared me so we didn't swim for too long. Mike got a picture of a raccoon on the beach that you will see in the bottom right corner. 

After the beach we changed and headed out of the park. We didn't spend very long in this park but the kids were whiny and not wanting to walk much. We were just thankful for the rainy weather that kept things cooled off during our hike. 

We went back to our room just in time for it to start raining again. We had some time before dinner so we all sat out on the balcony relaxing. And then we got to something pretty exciting, directly in front of (above?) our balcony! MONKEYS!! We were so excited to see them ... a huge pack (or whatever a large group of monkeys is called!) of them swinging from the trees, eating, scratching, and making noise. We think that these are Capuchin monkeys. Here is a little video of them. 

The pictures we got of them aren't very easy to see them in. The video is much better.

We watched them for quite awhile... they hung out in our tree for at least a half hour before they moved on to another area. We also think we heard howler monkeys at one point... and Jackson and I heard them again the next day. But we never did see any.

For dinner we headed over to El Avion which is a restaurant that has a plane in it's center. It is actually a plane from the Iran Contra affair. So an interesting little history lesson was spurred by this visit... mainly Mike filling me in on what I must not have retained from high school! Isabella thought it was pretty cool to go inside the plane (where they had the bar) and see her shirt in the black light. Jackson was totally wiped by the time the sun set and came to sit with me while we waited for our food. Before very long he was passed out asleep. Mike took him after a little while and he continued sleeping for the majority of our dinner. 

 After dinner we headed back to the hotel to get to bed. I think Jackson ended up eating some of his quesadilla in the hotel room because he missed out on eating his dinner at the restaurant. Isabella and Mike needed to get to sleep fairly quickly because they had an exciting canopy tour ahead of them and would need to be at the front desk to be picked up at 650am. Jackson and I planned to have a relaxing day at the hotel swimming, hiking, and just hanging out. 

More on that next time!

Third stop: Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica

We left La Fortuna heading for the ocean! We took a very twisty, turn-y, rocky, sometimes scary, slow-going trek out to the Nicoya Peninsula. I think it took us 5-5.5 hrs. We ate snacks on the road and also had our first run in (and only, thank goodness!) with the Costa Rican police. We were out in the middle of no where... lots of fields, very small towns here & there. We were ready to be at our next stop. The road was finally smooth (not golf ball size gravel) and we were making some time. Unfortunately the police had to be right there on the side of the road waiting for us. So we got pulled over. Told we were going 93 km (shown on the little radar gun). For those who don't know the conversion (I don't!) that would be about 57 mph. The highest speed limit on any Costa Rican road is 80 km (50 mph)... so incredibly slow. Sometimes it is good to go that slow because the road conditions are so poor... but sometimes you want to make up for those horrible road conditions when you have a nice road... but you can't. Or you're not suppose to. And you might get stopped like we did. So he tells us what the max speed limit is. He asks us where we are from and if this is our first time in Costa Rica. Then he walks over to his car to talk to the other police guy that was standing there. Mike then stashes some money from his wallet in the cup holder and I'm looking for our rental car documents (which he asked for but never looked at). A bit later he comes back with this spread sheet to show us. He asks us again if we'd ever been in Costa Rica (no!). Then he proceeds to tell us all the fines/fees for each of the columns (I don't even know what the heck each item was!) and then says "and that totals $700 US dollars" (or $700 & some change, can't remember exactly). I was like thinking- OMG! And I said, "we don't have that much." Mike says I said it panicked but I didn't think I sounded that way... I think I just sounded astounded. ;o) Then Mike said something about us not having that much & the police again asked if we'd ever been to Costa Rica. Again our answer was no. So then he says, ok, how much do you have? Mike opens his wallet & pulls out the equivalent to $65 US and tells him that is all we have. He says something about okay, he will take that for our ticket but we must not speed again, ya, ya, ya. Whatever. So we leave that whole ordeal with it confirmed that yeah, the police are as the travel books say- a bit crooked. And I spend the rest of our time in the car paranoid about having to pay off more police... watching Mike's speed, hassling him about it, and warning him of every police I see (and some I don't see). Fun times. :)

So with that out of the way, we continue on to the Nicoya Peninsula. We arrive a little while later at our next hotel, Tango Mar . We are greeted in the lobby with some yummy fresh juice drinks with the Costa Rican liquor- Guaro Cacique which is made from sugar cane. It was delish and perfect for the warm tropical climate to which we had just arrived. We were provided cold wet towels too which was really nice. :) We met the owner, Hilde, who is Belgian. We ended up seeing her everywhere during our stay... she is highly involved in the running of the hotel and it was always very pleasant to chat with her.

Here is the view from our balcony. LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing views like this throughout the day. :)

And here is our room (after we put stuff here & there!).

We were past the time for lunch so we had some more snacks to tide us over 'til dinner and headed off to the beach. Mike definitely was not wanting to play on the beach (he is not so into the hot weather or the sun) so he headed over to the shade and the hammocks after we checked out the ocean together.

Here is the view down the beach when we are in front of our hotel.

And the view down the other way. 

This is the main building at Tango Mar... where the restaurant we ate breakfast and dinner in is located along with the lobby and spa services. The hammocks Mike enjoyed a lot are in this picture as well.

And here is where our hotel was... it was on the 2nd floor, 3rd balcony over from the right. This hotel also has little bungalows on the property.

Here are the kids getting into the water for the first time:



The tide is super strong here on the Nicoya Peninsula so we didn't ever really do any swimming. Just walking in and holding tight onto the kids hands. :) They liked to run in and out of the waves which was fine as long as they didn't go far into them. They did get knocked down a few times before it was all said and done but they were both troopers about it.

Various pictures of the beach... the top left picture is a hermit crab. We enjoyed finding them in the sand and the kids eventually worked up enough nerve to hold them. :)

More beach pictures (and hermit crab). The second top picture is Bella carrying a coconut she found. She filled it with water (it was just the shell) and she is walking, struggling to carry the weight. (She is doing the same thing in the bottom picture too.) Mike has "Dad" written in front of him but it won't show up in the collage. :(

Another thing we loved doing here is finding lizards and taking their picture. Then trying to get close and scaring them away. :)

Here is Bella in the pool (this is the middle pool) and the view from the pool. No pics of Jackson this time... he is in the room getting a much needed nap. We had been at lunch and he started nodding off while eating. Then when he finished eating Mike picked him up to take him to the room for his nap. (naps were few and far between on this trip and Jackson is a solid 2 hr napper! Not to mention late nights and early mornings. They played a toll on him.) Jackson got very angry to have to go to the room for a nap and threw a huge fit... screaming VERY loudly in the restaurant, hitting Mike as he carried him off, and then biting his shirt!! He gets angered to the extreme when he is tired! So anyway, Bella spent time in the pool while he was napping and I read pool side.

Me on the beach.

 Here is the little lunch spot which is right by the pools.

And this was one of my favorite meals on the trip. It is a cold fish ceviche salad (so fish "cooked" in lemon juice) with plantain chips. The ceviche was perfect for lunch on a hot day, very refreshing. The plantain was made with mashed plantain formed into a patty & then fried. So it was crisp on the outside but a little soft in the middle. I have never had anything like it and it was very yummy!

Breakfast was included in the hotel cost at this resort and it was served buffet style with loads of tropical fresh fruit, cheese, breads, eggs, meats, yogurt, gallo pinto, and a few other dishes that were changed different each day. 

The lunch selections were similar to what you'd see in a cafe.

Dinners were served on the balcony outside at the main restaurant with the ocean directly across. It was always dark when we ate (it gets dark around 6pm as I mentioned in an earlier post) and so you couldn't see the water or beach but you could hear the crashing waves. Lots of seafood choices were on the menu as you might guess and Mike and I enjoyed the dishes we had. They did have resort price tags (on the high side) but we survived. :) 

This is the pool right next to the lunch area. There were 3 pools that were on 3 levels but right next to one another. Jackson is on the steps & Bella is climbing out. 

They have a little trail back behind the main hotel lobby/restaurant area that leads up to an overlook. I'm not really sure we made it to the overlook area... we made it to a clearing that we decided was going to be the overlook (it was really hot!). On the way there, they had a little hanging bridge which the kids liked. And here is also the view from the "overlook". 

We stayed 2 nights at Tango Mar and enjoyed the sun, the beach, the pools, and the food. When we left we decided to go a different route back taking the ferry... the hotel staff said that it was a quicker way to go than the route we took on our way here. More on that next time!

Next stop: La Fortuna, Costa Rica- Arenal Volcano

 After two nights at our first stop in Costa Rica, we headed on to our next stop: La Fortuna, Costa Rica, home of Arenal Volcano (Volcan Arenal). While we were sad to leave the luxurious Peace Lodge, we were excited to see more of Costa Rica. It took a couple of hours (maybe 3?? can't remember!) to get to our next hotel, Hotel Los Lagos. During our drive, the temperatures got a bit warmer... somewhere in the 80 degree range, I'd say. We stopped off at a little shopping mall on the way and got lunch at a grocery store inside. It was a bit odd to see a security guard at the entrance of the mall & we were unsure whether to tip him on the way out (couldn't find anything in the guide book either although I do remember reading something about this at some point). The mall had some interesting looking shops including one shop called H&M with no actual H&M clothing in sight (at least not the H&M I'm familiar with!!). The kids were excited to get a coconut from the grocery store produce section that came with a straw to poke in it for drinking. :)

As we were getting closer to our hotel we began to see the volcano. The volcano is 5,437 feet and is currently in a resting phase. They had lava eruptions up until 2010! Even though it is not erupting currently, there is still smoke coming out of the top (see video below).


Here are some pictures of the volcano from our drive in, from our back porch, and from an outlook point on our hotel property.

And the video of the volcano in action.



These are from the little outlook point... I guess you get a little bit less of an obstructed view & are slightly closer. :)

On the hotel property, near the restaurant, they have a trail that as many tropical plants and some exhibits you can look at. Here are some of the eye catching flowers & plants we found. The one with my fingers is a very small pineapple and then the bottom right corner is the pineapples on the plant.

Crocodile in this area... Jackson loved seeing this guy.

We loved spotting lizards & taking photos. So exciting for everyone! Even the kids. ;o)

On our second day in this area we headed into town for lunch at a yummy pizza place that was mentioned in our travel guide - Vagabondo. Oh and on our first night in town, we ate at a local restaurant that had a good review in our travel guide as well- Soda Viquez. Sodas are like their casual restaurants... not quite fast food because you do sit down to eat and order from a server, but a casual setting with menu items that are budget friendly. Mike and I both had a traditional casado which is a plate of traditional foods. I had the fish which had rice as well as a beet salad, baked plantains, and a few other things. It was delish. Now back to the pizza place... They make wood fired pizzas and they were sooo good!

After lunch we headed further into town to find some dessert. We found ice cream for the kiddos and then Mike and I found some coffee (well a frozen coffee of some sort). The large picture below is the town square taken while we sat at the coffee place. Then of course the kids and Mike in that same restaurant. 

 And here is Jackson with his extremely messy ice cream cone. It was not such a good idea (Mike's, btw) because he has not yet figured out how to eat ice cream fast. He actually is a very slow licker who will not take bites nor lick any faster. So I ended up holding his ice cream to keep his hands from getting even more messy and here I am trying to encourage him to eat faster before it all melts away onto my  hands. No such luck. I ended up throwing it out before he finished and needing to go back to the restaurant to use the bathrooms to do some major clean up.

 I'm getting the events of the day a little scrambled but no biggie, right? Upon waking up we headed down to eat breakfast (buffet included with room) which included all the usual... eggs, cheeses, fruit, breads, gallo pinto (rice & beans), and some meats.

After breakfast we took another walk down the trail and viewed some of the exhibits that were closed the prior day like these leaf cutter ants.  They were pretty cool to watch cut the leaf into a smaller portion and take it along a branch over to the ant "hill". In the far left corner you can see the ant cutting away a portion of the leaf. The right side is their home of tunnels that you could view behind glass.

 We also viewed the butterfly area (no pictures unfortunately) and another frog habitat. We then went to swim in the pools ... they have a regular pool and then a series of pools that are fed by the hot springs that comes off of the volcano area (not exactly sure how all that works so I can't really go into detail!). The further you go up, the hotter the pools got. We hit the first hot spring pool and that was plenty hot for us on such a warm day! We ordered some cold drinks from the pool bar and the kids enjoyed drinking virgin piña coladas out of a large pineapple. We got to see a couple lizards from our seats in the pool and saw a big one jump into the water from the ledge. It was pretty cool!

The pools had some slides but Isabella couldn't be talked into going down them. It's probably a good thing though because Mike went down them both and said that they were pretty rough! Isabella made a little friend that she played with and Jackson checked out the pool up near the top of the water slide with the water volcano in it. 

I didn't get any photos of our room (it wasn't anything special although the view of the volcano was nice. Here are some more pictures of the property. Our hotel is the one in the bottom left picture w/ the white car out front. We had to hike up and down this hill to get to breakfast. Down wasn't bad at all but coming back up with the kids in tow on a hot day required much effort on everyone's part... the kids wearing out fast & us having to drag them up it!  The hanging bridge was one leading up to the hotel's zip line. Unfortunately we didn't realize that the hanging bridge tour was out of this area or we would have been on a lot of hanging bridges. :( AH well... something for next time!